He's a brawling, sprawling giant – on the make for fame and fortune and then some!

Monthly Archives: February 2009

Just got back from visiting friends in Hoboken. Never been to their place. Didn’t know exactly where they lived, but I had an inkling for some reason which was on target. Oh by they I mean Elsie and Dutch. 2 people that I know and readers of the blog.

Or at least one of them read it and tells the other I don’t know but I do know their cats like me and from what I heard their cats don’t like just anyone. Always a hit with the pussy I suppose. No possible threat. A bit randy perhaps? Perhaps I was. 4 or 5 Heinekens will do that.

Still it was a last minute thing, phone call, invite of food, sounded good to me. Fast chatter and wandering tangents over a few hours wore me out and I still had to come home to write. I’d be open for another invite and since they read this from time to time I’m putting that out there.

Food was good despite a heavy parmigiana presence and I’m no fan of the parm. Still I left stuffed. There promises to be a heavy snowstorm tomorrow, from what I read they’re anticipating 6 inches or more. Unless it was a male meteorologist then we can actually expect 2 inches.

Last night I had a good phone call with Harpy. He was himself as usual but relatively coherent this time which made it fun. Running down various things Harpy can do for employment.

His girlfriend Deborah is a yoga teacher and I suggested that since she’s successful with that maybe he can manage her and her calendar as well as her fellow yoga teachers, sending them out on various assignments getting a commission or whatnot.

Sort of like Harpy’s Angels, ‘Hello Angels’, ‘Hello Harpy’.

Why not? It could work and wouldn’t hurt to try. He’s another decent cook, that Harpy. Perhaps that angle. I also suggested a government job. In any event we have to find Harpy a job. Him first since he’s been unemployed the longest out of all my friends.

He’s not collecting either so if you know anything let me know and I’ll forward it to him. He’s also a very good bookkeeper which was his last job was. This afternoon I watched 2 DVD’s. The first was the Homecoming with Ian Holm. A film of the Harold Pinter play from 1973 which was quite harrowing.

I’m sure it would have been more intense and perhaps more entertaining (if that’s the right word) watching it live on stage. In fact it was recently on Broadway with Ian McShane, Michael McKean and Raul Esparza which of course, I wasn’t interested in seeing until after it closed.

After that I watched Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog which was engrossing and not as harrowing as I thought it would be. True story of Timothy Treadwell who left civilization to commune with brown grizzly bears in the wilds of Alaska.

It was a collection of videos made by Treadwell that were gathered and edited and made into a documentary by Herzog. Sad, deluded Treadwell, it did not end well for him and his girlfriend. There was an audio track of their attack and slaughter by a grizzly bear, one that wasn’t used to them and vice versa.

You don’t hear the audio but Herzog listens to it and tells a friend of Treadwell to turn it off and then he tells the friend to never listen to it, instructing her to destroy the tape.

It reminded me of Into the Wild, a DVD that I had a few weeks ago, starring Emile Hirsch as yet another young man fed up with civilization and goes off on walkabout eventually meeting an untimely demise.

My walkabout usually involves me staying within the mile square confines of Hoboken and the only bears I see are generally hirsute men.

And to end tonight’s entry on a very Up note, here are 2 recent pictures of Kal-El, who is learning to walk. Still the cutest baby in the world!

Well I went back to work today, on a Friday. No one was expecting me to come in, but still, I donned the suit and tie, looking rather sharp I might add. I also looked good on Wednesday morning but that ended badly. I slept ok last night though I did wake up before the alarm clock and could not get back to sleep.

So I got up earlier than usual which was ok. Puttered about, taking my time getting ready. Had a bowl of cereal which made me think, what if the cereal got me sick, not the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had the night before? I gambled and won. I didn’t get sick from the cereal.

I checked my email again, basically repeating the routine I did on Wednesday and was reminded of a chat I had with an online friend yesterday. He had mentioned that I seem to always be sick. He occasionally read this here blog you see.

I protested that I was sick in October, January and now in February. Not always sick. October and January were viruses, Wednesday was obviously food poisoning. Same symptoms as salmonella and with all the news about peanut butter or peanuts in general I think I put 2 and 2 together. Only it didn’t last that long.

We chatted online about a few things and I brought up my lack of self confidence. He was surprised to hear that. We had met once quite by chance on the street and I guess that’s where he got the idea that I exude self confidence. It must be the suit and tie. I wear a suit and tie and I don’t slouch when I walk, I have my chin up, eyes looking forward and I do feel confident.

ooh! it's Mister Confident!!!!

In jeans and t shirt I slouch and generally look unkempt. It’s a good thing I suppose putting forth an air of confidence, it certainly has gotten me some good jobs. You want a good job, you gotta dress the part. At least thats how it used to be.

I’ll find out next March how that works out I guess.

But it weighed on my mind all day, my chat and the perception of being confident when behind the fabric I’m still the same old John, a neurotic, insecure mess at times.

It being a Friday, I planned on leaving early, and of course that didn’t work out. I was busy running around to the bank, to this place and that place errands for everyone. I don’t mind, it’s my job and it’s obvious, if I don’t do it, no one will.

I came in this morning and there was the mail from the past 2 days all over my desk. I sorted it out and delivered it to the proper people. I left around 3:00 this afternoon and made my way over to Bill’s building. It was around 50 degrees this afternoon so that afforded us some extra minutes together which of course was nice.

I got him a nice, cheap pair of cuff links for St. Patrick’s Day of 4 leaf clovers. I got the same for myself. It was a nice deal and I gave them to him this afternoon rather than wait. He loved them and we talked a bit about how we might spend March 17 which will be here before we know it.

No bars, we tried that last year and found every place jam packed with some charging an admission. We just walked around last year, smoking cigars and will likely do the same, staring at the visitors and the vomiters.

I was saddened and gobsmacked to read an email from Harpy yesterday, that Randall Bewley, guitarist for Pylon died the other day after having a heart attack at age 53. I met Randy a few times at McSwells when Pylon played.

Pylon was a band from Athens GA that I first saw with my brother Frank in August 1980, opening up for Talking Heads at the Wollman Rink in Central Park. I can’t say I was ‘ready’ for Pylon, I was definitely more into Talking Heads, plus there was so many people there that August night that Randy, Michael, Vanessa and Curtis from Pylon were swallowed up in that summer night.

Even though I was a big B-52’s fan, it didn’t register that Pylon were from Athens, unlike REM who a year or so later, I first saw opening up for Gang of Four and walked away from my prime spot near the stage saying ‘the only thing they have going for them is that they’re from Athens.’

Maybe a few months after that I was in that long lost record store on Second Avenue in the East Village, Free Being where I saw the cover for Chomp, Pylon’s 2nd album. I bought it just for the cover, vaguely remembering who they were and immediately loved it when I played it.

Played it for my friend Jet as well and he loved it too. Pylon was quitting the music biz at that time, it wasn’t fun anymore. They did get back together a few years later and played McSwells where I was able to DJ for the show and got Jet in to see them not long before Jet passed away.

I vaguely remember Rita having a problem with Pylon, Vanessa might have been off-putting with her style of singing after seeing them a few times opening up for some band Rita would rather be seeing, but I did thank Vanessa after a show and Rita was there and felt her opinion of Pylon was wrong since they were all such genuinely nice, sweet people.

And you could dance to their songs.

Now Randy is gone, and Pylon will be no more. He Left behind a wife and 2 kids. Notices from the B-52’s, REM and even members of Gang of Four among others have come in on various websites stating that they were one of the best bands ever and that Randy was certainly a one in a million guitarist.

What happened? Well things went well on Tuesday. I went to work, came home feeling fine. Tom Chin has been a walking petri dish and I wasn’t that close to him physically, 2 arms length at best. Jennifer Bell, a temp that’s been working in the office was out sick.

Some nasty ass bug keeps popping up. I thought I had it in October, then in January but here it was something totally different than those times. I came home from work after seeing Bill for a few minutes.

That went well, then I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich since I didn’t want to cook. I’ve done that before, something simple and filling and I’ve been using the same peanut butter for the past couple of weeks. I looked online and the symptoms I had were tantamount to Salmonella.

Watched President Obama make his speech to the joint session of Congress which went well. I still love the guy, what can I say? Piyush Jindal, I mean Bobby Jindal (changed his name to Bobby after seeing Mike Lookingland as Bobby Brady on TV when he was 4 years old) talk down to the people of the United States in his republican response to the democratic President.

Putting forth the lies of a magnetic levitation train from Anaheim CA to Las Vegas NV. He was a jerk, but then again I expected no less. It was almost like he was put on since Slumdog Millionaire won all those awards and the party of No wanted to cash in on that Hindu magic.

Though Piyush/Bobby converted to catholicism much to the disappointment of his Hindu parents, people see an Indian face and think ‘Hindu’ then maybe ‘Muslim’ or ‘Sikh’ but hardly ever thing ‘Roman Catholic’.

Went to bed after that, no problems, feeling good. Woke up at the usual time, showered, had coffee, got dressed and sat in front of my computer to check emails that I received overnight. As I sat there, something was up with my stomach, enough so to make me hustle to the bathroom where I unleashed the raisin bran and coffee I had a few minutes before that.

Suit and shoes basically ruined, me feeling woozy. Sent an email to work stating that I wouldn’t be coming in and went back to bed where I slept for most of the day and night, getting up to run to the bathroom every 45 minutes or so. Also drinking plenty of water so as not to be dehydrated.

Rand called me at one point, asking me about a Rapid Share file that I sent out from my Yahoo account which I haven’t used in quite a while. Apparently I was hacked and Rand suggested I change my passwords immediately. Of course with a 100 degree temperature, that wasn’t happening so easily. I did the best that I could and changed passwords as well as an alert not to open any email from my yahoo account.

Haven’t heard anything yet so I’m hoping for the best.

I was too weak to do much of anything so I texted Julio asking him if he could pick up some juice from the supermarket on the way home from work. He texted back, he was in bed and had a fever of 102. Stine offered to get me some juice as well as some tangerines and picked up my mail from 5 floors below.

I slept on and off between running to the bathroom. Didn’t eat anything until maybe 8:00PM when I fried up an egg and had some toast. Then it was bedtime again. Woke up this morning, not feeling 100% and sent another email into the office saying that I’ll be out again.

Went back to bed after watching Rick Santelli on the Today show being interview by the Chia Pet. Santelli is the jerk who was railing ignorantly against the stimulus package from the floor of the Chicago stock exchange a week or so ago. All of a sudden he’s a media celebrity who’s been palling around with G. Gordon Liddy, famed felon and plotter of murders of those who are against him and the republicans. That was enough to put me back to sleep.

Woke up an hour or so later and decided to go out and get a bagel. I was feeling relatively ok. Dropped off yesterday’s suit at the cleaners, to the library to pick up a book. The virus is at the library too from what Diane, the head librarian tells me. She was sick over the weekend and today was her first day back.

I headed out from the library and called Stine to see if she wanted a bagel. She was surprised to hear from me and yes she wanted a bagel, and one for Julio who was still in bed, sick. I was going to go to the supermarket to get a few things I might need, but felt I might have over done it as I was drenched in sweat.

That was a few hours ago. I’m feeling ok now, but then again I’m not doing anything. Temperature is 97.7 which beats the 3 digit temperature from yesterday. I hope to go in tomorrow, though it’s probably not expected. Who goes in for one day of work? Someone who wants to keep his job, that’s who.

Not a bad Fat Tuesday. Not that I’m celebrating Mardi Gras. Just today was an agreeable day. Sure there was a bit of nonsense but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. Last night was rather ho hum. I thought Heroes would be the big thrill of the day, but actually it focused on the boring characters.

Harpy called when it started and I told him I would call him back In retrospect, I should have taken his call. The horned rimmed glasses guy’s back story simply isn’t compelling, and the cheerleader would have been a better storyline. Also, no Syler which means dull dull dull.

After that I watched Futurama and Demitri Martin’s show on Comedy Central. My brother Frank recommended it and he was right, it’s pretty funny. He does remind me of John Hamilton though. Speaking of John Hamilton, Bill and I are attending a surprise party for him on Sunday. Hopefully he doesn’t read this blog, or Google his name, where this entry might pop up.

Went to bed after the big news story of New York getting a new archbishop, replacing the old archbishop who’s retiring. Not that anything with change, they’ll just have to let out or take in the brocaded cape and gowns.

Haute couture while schools are closing. Yeah they have their priorities straight.

Yesterday was the first time in a while that I’ve walked on the property of St. Patrick’s cathedral. I usually cross the street, but it couldn’t be avoided. Did you hear or read that the catholic church is bringing back selling indulgences? Yep. Sure are. Gotta raise some money and bishop needs a new pair of (Prada) shoes.

Slept really well last night, woke up to the sound of the Monkees singing Daydream Believer. I like leaving a little later, the bus isn’t that crowded since there are buses rolling down Washington Street every 5 minutes and I get to ride in a coach bus. Very comfortable.

Since I finished Sarah Vowell last week as well as the double issue of the New Yorker I had nothing to read yesterday and wound up staring out the window. Today I made sure I had something and brought the latest issue of Uncut magazine and read about the formation of Apple Records 41 years ago. What a mess that turned out to be. Good intentions, lousy results.

Work was a breeze today. Tom Chin has the flu and didn’t stay all day which was good. He gave me something to fax when he gave me the go ahead and then he left the office. I got the thing ready but didn’t fax it, but sent an email telling him I did.

I’d get yelled at if I didn’t fax it and wasn’t sure if he wanted me to, perhaps I missed his go ahead. He responded, probably while on Metro North heading back to Connecticut, in caps writing ‘I told you to wait until I told you!’ I replied that the fax machine wasn’t working properly so it didn’t go out after all.

Actually it never left my desk. He’ll probably have something to say about it tomorrow, if he comes in.

Today’s comedy was courtesy of Vivek. He gives me some checks to deposit. One goes to this bank A, the other goes to that bank B.I get the deposit slips all set but the account number has one too many digits. I ask him if he’s sure it goes to bank B and he says yes.

I go to bank A and that went well, I was able to make the deposit. I go to bank B and they tell me it’s not their bank. I then go to bank C across the street and it’s not them either. I then cross another street and go to bank D where I’m met by some helpful staff.

They escort me to an office and a handsome young man comes in and enters the info. It turns out it is his bank, bank D. He does the transaction while I wait in the office and comes back with the deposit receipt. I ask him how things are with the current economic climate and he tells me he works at a bank that actually has shown a profit.

Then he asks where I bank and I tell him. I’m getting a vibe from this guy, that he’s into me. Imagine that, being seduced so I could perhaps switch banks. It was a pleasant experience and I left after complimenting him on his suit. Gave him something to dream about.

Left work an hour or so later, on my way to see Bill for a few minutes. I had every green light and made it across town in surprisingly record time. Saw Bill and we had a few laughs. He asked me to go to Easter services with him and his mother.

Sure, I said, mentioning that I will have 40 days from tomorrow to think about it in case I change my mind. He mentioned that he wouldn’t be able to get ashes tomorrow due to his hectic schedule. I told him that Ash Wednesday is probably a favorite holiday of dermatologists around the world.

Well it’s Monday again and I’m back to posting at the usual time. Yesterday was an early posting, before noon. Before 11:00 even. I was fired up and was able to write over 600 words in about 20 minutes. Relatively lucid writing I think.

After I wrote I spoke to my sisters, Annemarie, the white one and Billie in DC, the black one. Both were very supportive and listened to my side of the story. If you want Bill’s side of the story, you would have to ask him.

The day progressed and I went out for a bit, in the rain. Not as weird a day as Saturday turned out to be. Though things on Saturday night were better than during the day. My friend Lois has a show coming up called ‘Is That Supposed to Be Funny?’ and she needed a photograph for the poster.

Lois DiLivio in 'Is That Supposed to Be Funny?'

She came over and we talked listened to music, and even played some music a little bit. She told me of a project that she has with Rand and I immediately suggested doing ‘How Many More Times’ (or a rip off of that). I picked up the bass and did my best John Paul Jones/Duck Dunn impersonation, playing the initial notes.

Of course they weren’t the proper notes as Lois pointed out, but she got the feeling I was putting into it and she listened when I said, ‘So what if it’s not the right notes? If that’s the case, then I have written a new song!’

So maybe, and a really big maybe at that, who knows? I might play along with Rand and Lois at an open mike somewhere down the line. Rand on trombone, Lois on ukulele and Lisa doing some vocals as well as blowing bubbles.

That would be for the cover version of Don Ho’s Tiny Bubbles. Which I just figured out went ‘Tiny bubbles, in the wine’ rather than what I thought it was for maybe 40 years, ‘Tiny bubbles, tenderloin’.

We took about 17 pictures with various props that I had around the apartment. It was great having Lois over for a visit. Since Juan is down in South Jersey, no one comes to visit me in my messy apartment. That brings me to Sunday’s problem which weighed heavily on my mind.

Around 4:20, yes-4:20, I gave Bill a call and we wound up talking for nearly 2 hours. Cleared a lot of things up and decided to try to make time for each other and yes, I will go see Slumdog Millionaire with him.

We wound up talking during commercial breaks on the Oscar program. Hugh Jackman was better than I expected. He was great actually. I always enjoy the Academy Awards, no matter who is hosting. Hugh Jackman mentioned rehearsing for the show the day before in his garage and jumped into the opening number which looked like it was rehearsed in someone’s garage. And Anne Hathaway was pretty funny.
Who knew she was the daughter of Mrs. Hathaway (from the Beverly Hillbillies)? Not me.

I liked the 5 previous winners of each acting award coming out and praising each nominee. Harpy hated it. I know… I called. I think it would have been better if they all talked at the same time. That would have been great.

Penelope Cruz won and she sure was pretty. Still have to see Vicky Christina Barcelona. Annemarie saw it liked it. Of course, Javier Bardem is in it. Penelope Cruz thanked Woody Allen and specifically thanked Pedro Almodovar which was a nice touch.

Tina Fey and Steve Martin came out for the writing awards and they were funny, especially with their new made up religion joke which could just as easily been Scientology.

The winner for original screenplay was Dustin Lance Black for Milk and he gave the best speech of the night, echoing Harvey Milk’s words to young gay people, telling them that they are not alone, they are not cursed. They are loved and valued.

Next came Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black who made a presentation about something standing on stage mere feet away from her ex, Brad Pitt and the woman he left Jennifer Aniston for, Angelina Jolie. Awkward! But Pitt/Jolie laughed at all the right places. I usually don’t care about those things, but I was reminded of their tabloid drama last night.

Then came a clip show of romantic scenes from 2008 which included a shot of James Franco kissing Sean Penn in Milk. Natalie Portman and Ben Stiller came out. He was made up to resemble Joaquin Phoenix and stayed in character for an awfully long 5 minutes which was 4 minutes too many. It got tired fast.

Then a Judd Apatow short with James Franco and Seth Rogan as well as cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. Very funny especially with James Franco getting turned on by another clip of his Milk character kissing Sean Penn’s Harvey Milk, then putting his arm around Seth Rogan and inching closer.

The Hugh Jackman/Beyonce musical tribute was spectacular to look at, but musically it was daft. A lyric from 20 songs intertwined by various singers was a mess. But it looked great. Then Heath Ledger won the supporting actor nod and his mom, dad and sister made a speech. Cuba Gooding’s non praise of Robert Downey Jr was ok, not that funny.

Documentaries came up and Man on a Wire, about Philippe Petit walking a high wire between Tower A and Tower B of the World Trade Center won which made me feel good since it was the only documentary I had seen. Luckily there were no shots from the documentary which had my palms sweating.

Every time Slumdog Millionaire was up for an award it won. Music, director, movie, cinematography, adapted screenplay, best ushers, ticket takers, popcorn. It won all handily. It probably would have beaten Heath Ledger if they were nominated in the same category.

Jerry Lewis came out and got the lifetime achievement award from Eddie Murphy. I think it was the first time a DC Comics character received an award. Foreign film went to Japan for Departures, which I haven’t seen.

Danny Boyle, Slumdog director followed by Kate Winslet who had a great speech, but what made her speech for me was when she tried finding her parents in the audience and got her father to whistle to show where he was. My father used to whistle like that. Brought back memories, memories of thinking that I was being treated like a dog.

Sean Penn won for Milk and he too had a great speech. It was good to see Milk getting some recognition, 2 awards. Then Slumdog Millionaire won best picture and it was all over.

It was basically the Slumdog Millionaire show with special guests, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet and Sean Penn. I wonder how long it will take for a TV show based on Slumdog Millionaire? Or the Broadway musical…

This might be the first entry that I’ve written before noon. It’s a little after 10:00 Sunday morning. I just got back from getting bagels and the papers. I get a call from Bill as I walk back to the apartment. He’s on a bus with his mother going to church, I’m on the street.

We’re talking about various trivial things, when Bill mentions that he went to see Slumdog Millionaire with his old friend, Fred. Bill’s known Fred for almost 20 years he says.

And as from what I wrote yesterday, I wanted to see Slumdog Millionaire. It’s not so much that Bill saw Slumdog Millionaire with Fred, it’s more that I have to be content with 5 minutes a day with Bill if I’m lucky.

I have to be content with Bill running off trying to further his acting career. Going to readings and practices, rehearsals and auditions while I sit at home hoping that he gets home safely, and by home I mean Stuyvesant Town. I support Bill in these endeavors, but just wish we could spend more time together.

The phone call on the street ended rather abruptly and I sent him a text saying that “I’m hurt and pissed”. His reaction? He called me, ‘Well you saw the Wrestler at Pedro’s house and I wanted to see that with you’. I explained that it was at a party and there were other people involved.

‘Well you could have said that you didn’t want to see that. You could have asked for another movie’ I explained again there were other people there and it wouldn’t be right for me to say, ‘Hey I want to see this with my partner, perhaps we could watch another movie?’

That night in Otisville we watched a boxing match, Gran Torino and The Wrestler. You could tell by the testosterone in those viewing choices that a romantic plea would not have gone down well. I did tell him when I got back that I would like to watch it with him but no plans were ever made.

‘Well you do things on your own. You go to art galleries on your own.’ I tell him I go to art galleries on my own because he’s rehearsing with his band, or has voice classes or whatever he does on Saturday afternoons that I am not privy to. And I would rather go to the galleries with someone.

I was surprised that he was upset with me because I was pissed off. He also told me he went to see The Wrestler on his own anyway. I do not like going to movies by myself. In his mind I think he feels I should be happy to be able to see him when I see him for those fleeting minutes.

And in those fleeting minutes, when I am on my way home, bundled up for the winter weather, he comes out in office wear, no coat, maybe a hat which when he goes out to see me is not enough to guard against the cold weather. So I only get a few minutes.

We don’t make the time to do anything together anymore. He has his things to do, sometimes for his career, sometimes just for a lark and I hear about it the next day. He seems to think that I want to monopolize his time and I certainly do not.

I just want to find time that might last for a few hours rather than a grouping of seconds. To his credit, he did offer to see Slumdog Millionaire with me but I told him no, that it was tainted. Plus to see movies nominated for an Academy Award is fun for me at least, but after the fact it sort of loses it’s cache.

I suppose I could wait for it to come on cable, but who knows? I’m not interested anymore really.

This has been an odd day. Nothing bad happened, at least not yet. It just started out on the wrong foot, leading to a day of missteps. I woke up, tried to contact Julio to see if he and Stine wanted bagels. No answer. I called Stine instead and she said no, they were going out. That was no problem.

I went to the bagel shop where there is never a line anymore. It used to be there would be a line out of the store onto the sidewalk, but hasn’t been like that in a few months.

I asked Jeff, someone who’s been working there for ages, a week or so ago if it’s been slow and he mentioned that I had just missed a rush. I didn’t believe that since there is hardly anyone in there when I’m there. Denial or just putting forth the company line?

I’m convinced they don’t like me in the Bagel store. One guy in particular doesn’t like me, I can tell. When I moved back to Hoboken almost 7 years ago, I started getting my bagels on Washington Street. A few weeks later I saw this particular guy on the street with his kids and as I passed I said hello. He gave me the stink eye in return. I figured with the hundreds of people he sees each week I was lost in the shuffle.

After that I saw him again and once again said hello and once again I get the stink eye. One time I gave my order at the counter, something like 3 sesame, and 2 poppy bagels. He gave me 3 and 3. I mentioned that it wasn’t what I ordered and he got all uppity. So ever since then it’s quite frosty between us.

I do try to support small businesses, but in Hoboken, the small business owners don’t make it easy and show very little gratitude. Next to the register is a container for tips. Knowing that some of the staff have families to support I sometimes leave my change in the container. Sometimes I get thanked, and other times like today with me and Frosty the bagel counter person I get nothing.

I think next time I go in I will wait for Frosty to be waiting on another customer. And if I hear Jeff say to a new customer, ‘You know those bagels will make you thirsty, you sure you don’t want something to drink with that?’ I’ll go postal.

That basically set the tone for the day. I went out once after that and it just seemed so weird that I decided not to go out again until tomorrow. But I did go out, hoping to run into the Chinese dude who usually sells bootleg DVD’s at the barber shop at 4:00PM on Saturday afternoons.

I didn’t see him and I wasn’t going to go hang out in a barber shop if I wasn’t getting a haircut. I was hoping to get a $5.00 DVD of Slumdog Millionaire. Oh well. The only Academy Awards movies that I’ve seen are Milk and The Visitor, and Wall-E.

Maybe I’ll do a live blog during the awards tomorrow, or rather write about it as it happens and post afterwards. That seems more likely since I don’t think I’m equipped for live blogging.

Last night I caught up on what I had DVR’d. Spectacle with Elvis Costello. 1st up had guests She and Him, Jenny Lewis and Jacob Dylan. All very good and enjoyable and that Jacob Dylan sure is cute, and he sounds like Bruce Springsteen I think. Imagine growing up being Bob Dylan’s kid, how strange that must be.

I have a newfound love for Jenny Lewis, though Juan has been hyping her up to me for a while now. And She and Him, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward were good enough to make me think about getting their record.

Then I watched what I guess is the season finale for Spectacle, this time hosted by Elton John who interviewed Diana Krall and had her husband, Elvis Costello come out opening with a song and singing with Diana and Elton at the end.

Geez, I swear Diana Krall is like so many women that I know, at least in the way she talks and her mannerisms. I enjoyed her, but sometimes it was like watching my niece Corinne on TV. If only Corinne played piano. She was very entertaining, Diana Krall and I think she’d be worth checking out as well.

After that I watched the 11:30 Simpsons who had Stephen Sondheim on, writing a song for Krusty the clown. And Bart was in therapy and really getting a lot out of it, even though 5 sessions were mandatory as punishment for a school prank.

I almost stayed up to watch Conan O’Brien’s last Late Night show but since I was recording it I figured I would watch it today. Which I did do, watch it today. Unfortunately it ran long and as Conan was summing up his 16 years hosting the show it got cut off.

So I watched that on NBC.com, and posted it on my Facebook page, as well as Conan releasing Abe Vigoda back into the wild, since ‘Pa’ said he wouldn’t be able to take him to Los Angeles where he will host the Tonight Show.

Though I didn’t watch Conan that often since it was on past my bedtime, I will miss him. But I should be able to catch some of the Tonight Show with Conan . I’m 6’2” and wear a size 12, Conan is 6’4” and probably wears a larger shoe, and I can only hope Jimmy Fallon could fill those shoes.

It’s Friday, last day of a 4 day work week. And it was quite an interesting work week. I’m not going to rehash the week, you can always go back and read what I wrote. Today was something else. I mainly played DJ today.

Some of the sub-subtenants enjoyed what I was playing and told me so. I mentioned that I used to do it for a living. But that wasn’t true. I never made a living from it. Maybe $30.00 and a burger or cavatelli with broccoli.

Occasionally I DJ’d someone’s wedding. That was always a nerve wracking experience. The first time I really DJ’d at a friends wedding was in 1986. I borrowed equipment from Ulysses Sankitts, a friend I had only met a few days before at a job I started one day before Ulysses.

He trusted me enough and talked it over with his brother Tony and they brought it to a loft on Broadway right above Canal Street. Eve who was a waitress at McSwells married Jeff a bartender at a bar in the city, so the guests were mainly the hip crowd. I guess I did well. It was a blur really.

I did spend more money on records than I was actually getting paid. Back then if given a choice between music and food, I would pick music. I was spinning records on off nights at McSwells, eventually taking over Guy Ewald’s shift. Charlie had Saturday nights so I had Fridays.

Occasionally we would switch shifts. McSwells was so insular then, whomever would DJ would sometimes work the door, always for $30.00 and the aforementioned dishes.

One time I was DJ’ing a wedding and the couple gave me a list of what they wanted played. I didn’t have Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton and it was the main number. They provided a copy but I never got around to it. The marriage was doomed anyway. The groom had quite a wandering eye and I think within a year it was kaput.

Another time a couple a few doors down from McSwells were getting married and I had the whole place swingin’. I remember a conga line snaking through the crowd at 1st and Clinton while I played the extended dance mix of Konk Party, still a favorite song 25 years later.

They paid me with a check that I cashed at McSwells even though McSwells never did that. Of course the check bounced and I got an earful from Steve Fallon’s sister Ann. But I loved to play music for other people and I still do.

I prefer to make people dance than actually dancing myself. The last time I DJ’d was at Lois and Fred’s wedding party in August and no one danced. I played nothing but hits and surefire things to move some butts and get asses wiggling but it never happened.

I guess I would be better suited for small situations without a dance floor, like office cubicles. When I worked at Farfetched, I would try to carefully select the music for the store, but sometimes Lois or Susan (or Denise) wouldn’t like what I was playing and I would get a puss on, taking their rejection of my musical selections so personally.

I think I would do well as a radio DJ, but that is my brother Frank’s area and I wouldn’t dare encroach on his space, no way.

I will say being a DJ with an iPod is a lot easier than lugging crates of records around. I would lug about 6 crates sometimes. On New Years Eve at McSwells I would bring 10 crates. That was always a big money night, $150.00 (maybe more) and various potions and drinks.

Well today was a weird day for sure. I was fine, Tom Chin was out after having words with Vivek (who has the flu). A 2 day work week for Tom Chin, sitting at home in a form of protest. Vivek is a screamer. He never screamed at me, but he is a bit of a spoiled brat.

Rich family you see. Never really had to struggle for anything. He phoned this afternoon, telling me he wasn’t coming in until after 4:00 since the market was tanking and he feels like he should see all of his stocks. And also I could go whenever I saw fit.

In the office today, it was Greg Stevens and myself for my team. The right wing nuts were in again though. They love to listen to the psychotic voice mails my stalker leaves me. This morning it was about how she hates my father and my brother and how I should fire that evil French guy.

So Frank, Brian and Henri (or Pierre or Alain or Jacques), be on guard. Crazy Korean chick is on the loose and she’s gunning for you!

I was finished with whatever it is I had to do around 1:30, then I just surfed the next 2 hours. Believe me, I would rather have had something to do. I did finish Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates.

It was ok. Couldn’t get into it as easily as I did her other books. She seems like someone I’d like to have a pint with though. And it was a day late, so I was out $0.10. It was a good book, not her best.

I think I’ll take out David Sedaris’ last book, What to do When Engulfed in Flames next. I enjoy his essays more than his non-fiction. I hated most of Holidays on Ice. Just felt so forced. His life story is more entertaining.

Myself, I can’t tell a joke to save my life, but I could tell you about something that happened to me and more than likely you would be laughing.

Oh that damned liberal media, tearing apart President Obama’s mortgage plans. Let the people lose their homes! Let empty houses stand in neighborhoods! Why should there be a safety net? Who are we? Our brother’s keeper?

That was the lead on NBC News with Brian Williams announced by Michael Douglas, a financial reporter in the Chicago Mercantile exchange spurting angrily about the economic plan.

Damned liberal media! Nothing should be done! Let things correct themselves! After all Wall Street did such an excellent job of policing themselves thanks to Reagan and his deregulation initiatives. And no one complained then!

Sure someone would have to pick up the tab, isn’t that why there are children’s children’s children? I know it’s convoluted and perhaps a bit Swiftian.

Something has to be done immediately and what I believe Obama is doing is what is best at this moment. I work alongside some of these Wall Streeters who are vehemently anti-Obama, but they offer no solutions, just towing the republican line, tax cuts.

Home earlier than usual. It was sanctioned, I put in the word that I would be out of the office from 1:30 this afternoon. I said I had an appointment to tend to. They didn’t ask any questions, but still I will explain it tomorrow somehow.

I made sure everything was taken care of and in any event, if they really needed me, I was just a phone call away. They’ve called me before when I was out of the office so today wouldn’t be any different.

Bill won a raffle last week at his office cafeteria, a lunch for him and his loved one. Not any lunch you see, something with metal utensils, cloth napkins, nice china and a bottle of wine to go with the rack of lamb, salmon and rice and veggies.

I walked out of my office building into a maelstrom, snow and rain flying in all directions. Still I persevered and made it to Bill’s building on time. He came down and met me and we rode the elevator to whatever floor the cafeteria was on.

Bill spoke to the woman who runs the cafeteria and she told us to sit anywhere we’d like. Bill found a prime position which allowed him to show me off to various co-workers. It was fun to meet them, most all of them mentioned that Bill was crazy. In a good way of course, since if he was crazy in a bad way I doubt if they would say things like that in front of him. They were a fun group.

Mmmmmm.....

The food was excellent, not your standard cafeteria fare. Rack of lamb, salmon, rice and veggies. I never had salmon before, I generally avoid eating fish, but it turns out salmon is good. I liked it. Can’t say I would go out of my way to order it, but if given the opportunity I would have it again.

Sadly there was no dessert. But who am I to complain after a nice lunch, as well as a couple of glasses with white wine? It was a lovely way to have lunch with my lovely man.

When I left the office at 1:30 I told Greg Stevens and Tom Chin I was heading out and they both said, ‘OK, see you tomorrow’. Since I was a block away from the bus terminal I decided to head on home. I got in the queue for the bus and settled into the last row and cracked open The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. It’s due today and I would like to finish it on time.

Midway through the slaughter of the Pequot tribe the cellphone rang. It was Casey Chasm. He was apologetic though his voice belied stress. Homeboy is under the gun with studying for the NY Bar exam, and just was laid off, and on top of that, Mrs. Chasm expecting.

I told him it was perfectly understandable. He said how sorry he was to leave like that, he thought it was ok. He had read the blog from Monday you see. What’s done is done and I’m sure he will ace the Bar exam.

I heard from Pedro last night, he had some gruesome details about the chimpanzee attack in Connecticut that were initially reported according to him that weren’t reported since. That the chimp on a rampage bit off the poor woman’s hands, as well as her face.

He said he had heard it on a local Connecticut news station. It is a gruesome story in any event, and it’s happened before. If you Google chimp attacks you’ll see a page full of gross reports. I did look it up to see if what Pedro said was true but couldn’t find anything about that.

Sort of unrelated, but about 12 years ago I heard on the news of a medical study that stated 1 out of every 100 men are immune to HIV.

It was announced at the top of the news hour and reported on and then never mentioned again after that one time. A bit like hearing what Pedro heard about the chimp attack.

Totally unrelated, so far in the past 2 weeks there have been 3 small earthquakes in the Morristown area. I felt the first tremor a few weeks ago, and since then there have been 2 more, less than the original 3.0. It kind of makes me think, is another one, perhaps stronger coming down the way?

Back to work after a three day weekend, leaving a four day work week. That’s nice. Paid holidays are generally enjoyable, I know I enjoyed mine, but you knew that already. The new coffee maker is behaving itself. This morning I had maybe two cups here and a few more at work.

I’ve already programmed the coffee maker for tomorrow morning so that’s one less thing I have to worry about. Also picked out what I’m wearing tomorrow. Tomorrow is a special day. I’ll actually go somewhere for lunch.

Bill won a contest at his workplace yesterday, a free lunch for him and his valentine, which would be me. Bill’s cafeteria is something else, I’ve eaten there before. There are several stations and the chefs make whatever it is you would like, but tomorrow the chef will be preparing a rack of lamb for Bill and myself as well as a bottle of wine.

So in the morning I will have to give notice at work that I will be going out for lunch, and might not be returning. Lunch is at 2:00 and since I would be a few blocks from the bus terminal I think it would make sense for me to just leave early. So I have to notify the powers that be that I more than likely not be back. Unless they say otherwise.

Vivek and his partner got to and from Florida with no problems, and they also got their rented car. And their wives got their Valentine’s bouquets that I ordered as well. I didn’t hear any complaints so I can only guess that it went well. They still haven’t paid me yet for fourteen hours of work and this afternoon was two more hours.

I had to go to Chinatown to pick up Vivek’s partner’s business cards. I left for the day at 3:00, getting on the local 6 train downtown. The first train was too crowded so I waited for the next train which was ordered out of service when it got to my station. So there were a few hundred more people waiting.

Squeezed into the next train after that and as the train approached Union Square it was announced that since their train was behind schedule the next two stops would be Bleecker Street and Brooklyn Bridge. That meant I would have to get off at Bleecker and walk down towards Chinatown.

I called up Bill since he’s been attending public meetings to protest the upcoming fare hike, which is a done deal, despite people like Bill protesting. The subway is presently $2.00 and promises to go up. Picked up the business cards and lit up a cigar while walking down Centre Street. Bill called with menu information for tomorrow.

Of course he calls as I’m trying to navigate crossing Canal Street at rush hour. People and cars coming in all directions. I sounded like my father saying ‘yeah it sounds good but can we talk about it later when I can actually pay attention to what it is that you’re saying?’

Not that my father would actually have used those words, it was more the tone of, ‘I don’t have time for this right now’, said in quite a terse manner. That made me feel bad so when I was able to find a quiet spot, I called Bill and told him I loved him.

He was facetious and started going off about how special he was that someone like me could love him. He said this in a slightly higher register than his normal speaking voice. He does this when I call, all humble and contrite after sounding like such a dick on the phone.

Something I try not to do that often but apparently I do. He laughed when I called him an neck bone. But I said that in a joking manner which he chuckled at.

It’s a Monday again, but it’s a federal holiday, Presidents Day. I have the day off but still I write at the usual time. Been active today, don’t know about busy. Active is better but it creates the image of exercise. I don’t exercise.

I don’t even consider riding my bicycle 40 miles exercise. I call it bike riding. I couldn’t fall asleep last night, been drinking a lot of juice so I thought maybe the sugar in the orange juice was keeping me awake but upon reflection I would say it was more than likely, the Cuisinart coffee maker Bill got me for Valentine’s Day.

I drank a lot of coffee, all in the name of making sure the coffee maker was working properly. I think I drank more than 10 cups. I know I made 2 pots and each pot is 10 cups so you do the math while I sit here vibrating. I do like the coffee maker though, I like it very much.

I’m sure Bill was nervous getting me the present, since a few years ago I was a bit sniffy about an expensive sauce pan he bought for my birthday a couple of years ago. In fact, I was so sniffy I didn’t use it for a year, just kept it in the cupboard still in the box.

I resolved never to behave like that again and to be grateful for whatever it is I got. It has now gained a position in my pantheon of cookware, and it is now the ‘special’ sauce pan.

So either because of the sugar in the orange juice or all the coffee I was up until 1:30 watching From G’s to Gents on VH1. It’s about taking some thugs and thug wannabes and turning them into what passes for gentlemen on VH1.

Farnsworth Bentley is the host and the final judge on whether these hoodlums from around the country, (including Union City) have what it takes to be a gent. They also get 100k if they make it to the end. It was mindless entertainment and perfect for someone who couldn’t fall asleep.

Then I fell asleep and woke up around 7:30, coffee pot a brewing and since I didn’t have to go to work today, I went back to bed, waking up at around 9:00. I showered and after watching the second half of A Hard Days Night on IFC I went out, bought some bagels, the papers and was able to get a haircut.

It wasn’t too crowded at Mr. L’s but apparently I got there at the right time since midway through my haircut, the place got crowded. Tony worked his magic, earning his tip by trimming the goatee and reducing the gray hair, as well as trimming eye brows, ear hair and nose hair. Above and beyond the call of duty.

They were watching Angels with Dirty Faces on TCM. Tony remarked about how well dressed everyone was back then, mentioning that even when they would show footage from baseball games the men were all dressed in suits and ties, not to mention hats, which seem to be coming back.

I was home soon enough in time to head out to have lunch with Casey Chasm. He suggested McSwells, but they weren’t open. I suggested the Malibu diner which was adequate. It was good catching up with Casey who is going to be a father and also studying for the New York Bar exam next week.

He’s nervous about the whole thing and I tried to reassure him. It was good to see him, both of us doing a rapid recent history much like one of those 5 minute date things you see in the movies. I did think it was odd when he left almost immediately after getting the check.

Lunch was on me as was planned, but I figured we’d walk afterwards, he back to his law books and me to Shop Rite but he was fast out of there. The man has got the Bar review on his mind.

I wound up walking alongside the viaduct, past the 5 screen movie theater under construction, past the recently completed and still quite vacant mini-mall and past 3 fire fighters who were doing some kind of training in the northwest quadrant of Hoboken.

I walked into Shop Rite which is much larger than the A&P a block away from my apartment. Shop Rite is maybe a 20 minute walk which is cumbersome if you’re carrying a few bags of groceries. That was basically my day. Really nothing much else to report so I think I’ll just stop it here.

First things first. I was bored, and I washed the dress shirts I ironed and ironed them again. They came out ok. There were quite a few videos on YouTube regarding how to iron and I think I got the gist of it, but still I’d probably be wearing a suit jacket over these shirts. Also the novelty of ironing has passed and almost crossed over into drudgery. No scorched handkerchiefs here though.

Last night Bill came home. Not overnight like I had thought and hoped. No, he was here for a few hours. We exchanged gifts, I got him cuff links, he got me a coffee maker. I’ve been using the same Faberware 4 cup coffee pot for about 15 years.

William’s brother Chris gave it to William and myself in Weehawken and I got it in the custody settlement. Bill gave me a Cuisinart 10 cup coffee maker that programmable for it to go over on it’s own before I wake up, so waking up to the smell of fresh brewed coffee was quite nice this morning.

I had taken out of the Hoboken library 3 DVD’s, Sleeper, Love & Death and All About My Mother. Taking DVD’s from the library is dicey since there is really no quality control. We tried watching Sleeper and Love & Death but the player could not read the discs.

So we threw in All About My Mother and after the first 5 minutes, Bill mentioned that he wasn’t into it. I told him to hang in there, it’s not ‘ha ha’ funny like the Woody Allen movies, but still there are some laughs that come from left field. Then Bill thought he might have seen the movie already, throwing out various plot lines that didn’t have anything to do with Almodovar’s movie.

I convinced him to sit tight and watch. Sure enough he was enraptured by the movie and the twists and turns. For me I was watching it for maybe the 4th or 5th time and kept finding different aspects of the characters.

It even touched upon Alzheimer’s with Penelope Cruz character so far gone that he couldn’t even remember his daughter though his dog did. It’s definitely a melodrama, some tears, some laughs and gets better each time I see it.

I suppose it is possibly Almodovar’s best. His funniest is still Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown though.

After Almodovar I turned on Spectacle with Elvis Costello with his guest Herbie Hancock. I watched it a week or so earlier and while I watched it I kept thinking how great it would be if Bill saw it, so he did and really liked it. Unfortunately, after that he had to go home so he could take his mother to church this morning.

I hated to see him go and as I hugged him I asked if he had the cuff links and he said he had. I told him to call me when he got home and he said he would as he trudged down the stairs. I watched Saturday Night Live which was funnier than the previous week.

The Jonas Brothers, what is it about them? I guess it’s good that they play their own instruments so maybe in some garage somewhere the Jonas Brothers are inspiring some kids to start a band and seeing where that goes. Alec Baldwin of course was hilarious mostly.

At 1:00 I called Bill and got voice mail. I of course immediately thought the worst, but what could I do except leave a message telling him to call me and if I don’t pick up, to leave a message to let me know he’s ok.

I didn’t get that call until about 10:00 this morning. He said he was so tired that he went right to sleep and his phone had died so he couldn’t call.

I also had to tell Bill that he left his cuff links here. So while it was nice to spend roughly 3.5 hours with Bill, it was certainly better than nothing.

I did get a funny phone call from Pedro today, as well as a couple of racy cellphone pictures that he sent that can’t be published since he’s in uniform. He was telling me he was hoping for a quiet night with Connie as well as watching a boxing match.

He did not know that Connie invited 2 girlfriends over for the night so he was locked away in the bedroom watching the match.

He found himself the object of desire by one of Connie’s friends who was quite hot and flirty but all he could do was do his best to stay focused on the television set even while the woman inquired about the other tattoos he might have on his body. He said she looked like Penelope Cruz.

I’ve been in that position before, someone so good looking, so hot…you can’t look at them since if you do you won’t be able to take your eyes off of them.

One time years ago I was DJ’ing a friends wedding at an art gallery in Jersey City. There was this extremely handsome man who I had seen around Hoboken a few times and he always got my attention. Enough attention that I could not take my eyes off of him. So good looking and well dressed.

Here he was at this wedding. As the day wore on, clouds started to gather and since I was DJ’ing outside it was best to call it quits. I was loading everything into a van, and here comes Mr. Handsome, willing to help me out.

‘No! No thanks, I got it, I can do it. Thanks..’ I just could not bear to be in such close proximity to his beauty. Never saw him after that.

A pleasant enough Saturday for me, and I’ve been busy. First off I woke up at 7:30 and said to myself, whoa- too early! So I went back to bed after relieving myself. Woke up again around 9:00. Bill is coming over tonight so I made the bed and puttered around the apartment, trying to clean up before coffee.

Not a good idea.

I made a pot of java and took a shower. It’s a weekend so no shaving, no hair gel. Mr. Natural, that’s me. I had 2 phone messages, both from Julio. He was out getting bagels this morning and was calling to ask if I wanted any. I called him back and he got me 2 bagels.

I think when I called he was on his way back from the bagel store so he turned around and got me mine. Soon he was knocking on my door with a bag containing 2 poppy seed bagels. No newspapers though, but that was alright. We chatted for a few minutes.

He had gotten Stine flowers among other things, and also got some more flowers as a gift from Alexander to his mum. He went back downstairs and I made a nice breakfast, re-reading an old Mojo instead of a newspaper.

I went to the library to pick up a book I ordered which wasn’t the book I had thought it was. I was looking for a book of Pete Frame’s Rock Family Trees. He used to make family trees about bands that were reprinted in Trouser Press magazine ages ago.

I saw the book online for sale but it was way out of my price range. The book I had was from the 1970’s and in very bad shape. I carried it with me from the library to the supermarket and when I got home I saw another book I had ordered from the library came in.

I eventually went back and returned the book I picked up a few hours before, got the new book as well as 2 Woody Allen movies, Sleeper & Love and Death, and an Almodovar movie, All About My Mother. Bill mentioned he wanted to watch some movies tonight so I figured those 3 would be good.

At least better than the 2 I have from Netflix. One of those is a 1973 film of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming and the other is Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, neither of which could be described as a lighthearted romantic comedy.

I decided to head out to Washington Street in the afternoon. I walked over to Tunes where I looked for a Snoop Dogg CD single of Sensual Seduction. I had a download of the instrumental version but lost it somehow. So I’ve been searching for that lately.

I accidentally bought a 12” single from Amazon, and I say accidentally since I don’t have a turntable anymore so that’s no good. They didn’t have it in Tunes but I did buy 2 Cd’s by Bowie, Let’s Dance and All Saints.

All Saints is a collection of the Dame’s instrumentals from 1977 to 1999. Also bought VU by the Velvet Underground. All used Cd’s and relatively cheap.

I walked to CVS to see if they had ironing boards. The reason I did that was when I bought the Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector at a hardware store, a few days later I went and found the same CO detector at CVS about 15 dollars cheaper.

But no, they didn’t have ironing boards so I went to the hardware store and bought one. I have decided to start to iron my shirts.

You see, after I wear a short that’s been cleaned and pressed from the dry cleaners, if I wear it once it gets pretty wrinkled, but the shirt is still okay. So instead of constantly sending shirts out to be pressed, I can at least iron them after wearing it once and it still looks ok, wearable.

I ambled down Washington Street with the ironing board under my arm, looking almost like I was waiting to catch a wave. Spoke to Annemarie and then started ironing shirts, always remembering not to leave the iron down on the shirt lest I get a scorched imprint of the iron, like they used to do on sitcoms.

I think I did alright but I’m sure there is a ‘proper’ way to iron cotton shirts. There’s probably a video on YouTube. That’s how I learned how to sew a button, via YouTube videos.

A few minutes later, I decided to check online for the instrumental version of Sensual Seduction since it’s all in the timing and right now I am downloading it. Fingers crossed, I hope it goes well.

Oh my my. As far as I’m concerned this has been a really crappy Friday the 13th. Really. Started out with me waking up a bit late at 7:00 and listening to the news on the radio as I made the bed and hearing of the plane crash in Buffalo killing 50 people.

Waking up to bad news like this certainly sucks. I puttered about the apartment, getting it together and heading out to catch the bus. I’ve gotten choosy on what bus I catch. I prefer a coach. It’s probably Bill’s influence from his bus driving days but also it’s a more comfortable ride.

I sat and started reading the New Yorker when my phone vibrated. I try not to talk on the bus, don’t want to be ‘that guy’, but it was my brother Brian so I took the call. He was asking if I was working today and I told him I was en route.

He was working at Hoboken high school. I told him to safeguard his valuables. We chatted and told me what was going on in his life. Total craziness and not in a good way. It’s not my problem and I’m not belittling his situation by saying that.

I only say that to explain I won’t write about it here. It’s his problem and all I can do is offer my support for this particular hell he seems to be going through. And he has my support 1000%. I’m disappointed in some of the players in his tale of woe and I feel bad for what they’re going through.

We wound up on the phone for almost 30 minutes. So much for not wanting to talk while on the bus, but I didn’t really talk outside of saying, ‘Really?’ That’s fucked up’ and ‘I am so sorry you’re going through this’.

I told him I was getting off the bus and he should call me later on if he had the chance. He didn’t call though, but I will always be there for him, come hell or high water.

After that I walked across midtown to work and found my mail box filled with voice mail from the stalker. Her name in Min Young Ahn, but I call her that fucked up Korean bitch.

She was crying and talking in Korean on 2 messages, the rest were in English, telling me she loves me and she was going to move and how could I have said all those nice things to her yet treat her so coldly.

She showed up at my building the other day during my stressed out moments of trying to book a flight for Vivek and his partner. I told security once again that she is absolutely not allowed into the building.

It all depends who is at the security desk, but I guess when they enter her name in the system there is an instruction to notify me immediately. I found out the next day she communicated with security by talking to them while looking at the ceiling.

I had a man date with Steve from my office who was let go when he came back from his honeymoon in October. He still uses the facilities and in January we had decided on Friday afternoons to go have a cigar and drink some scotch at a cigar lounge across the street from his apartment.

At 2:00 I met up with Steve and we picked out some of Harpy’s favorite cigars, the La Flor Domincana Double Ligero. I had a flask that used to belong to my father and filled it up last night with some Dewars.

We sat in some comfortable chairs and sat and shot the shit for over an hour. Good cigars and good scotch made for a pleasant buzz in an otherwise crappy day. We parted ways, he and his wife were driving out to the Poconos and I was going back to the office to get my stuff.

In the office, the right wing nuts had posted a picture of Bill Clinton, who I admittedly do not care for, saying that the current economic crisis was all Clinton’s fault.

My reaction was to print out a Wanted for War Crimes poster featuring the worst president EVER on it and pinned it discreetly in my cube at such an angle so that the main wing nut could see it behind my computer screen if he happened to glance in that direction.

The fucked up thing for me was, ‘if’ the current economic fiasco was Clinton’s fault, why didn’t the douche bag dip shit that followed him do anything about it? Of course they wouldn’t be able to answer that.

Perhaps they would mention that douche bag dip shit was too busy protecting the country from another 9/11 attack, which of course happened on his watch. I’m too busy myself preventing such an attack by hanging a bag of shiny rocks on my windowsill to the left of this computer.

Still buzzed I walked back across town and saw Bill for a few minutes. He was good at calming me down, after I told him all about what was going on in my world and the satellites orbiting. I’m glad he could be there for me when I need it and he says I’m there for him, even when I don’t know it.

We parted ways since it was getting cold out and he wasn’t dressed for it, so I left him with his high beams and continued west to the bus terminal.

Walking down 43rd street I ran into Amiable Alan, also known as Adam Ames. We worked together in 2006 at McMann and Tate aka Wolff Olins. It was odd seeing him in midtown and I asked him if he was still at McMann Olins.

He told me no, that he was let go as well as a lot of people. The company had a account with Washington Mutual and we all know how Washington Mutual turned out. I guess it was a good thing to get out of there when I did.

We caught up for a spell, he’s doing freelance design work and was off to another gig. I walked to the bus terminal and caught a coach bus back to Hoboken. I sat and read Sarah Vowell, The Wordy Shipmates which of course is funny, but the walking and the scotch made for lidded eyes and I closed the book and stared out the window instead.

Bought a Mega Millions lottery ticket, perhaps worth 85 million dollars. That could come in handy when I win it.

Just got home a little later than usual. Stopped by Lovely Rita’s apartment and dropped off about 40 copies of her resume. I was there for an hour, just drinking diet Sprite and chatting. She has a cute little dog named Lulu.

I had never met Lulu before, I’m usually standoffish around small dogs but Lulu was adorable and a perfect companion for Lovely Rita. After some quick catching up I had to head back to Hoboken. Lovely Rita and I made plans to check out some art galleries this Saturday, weather permitting.

I’ve known Rita for about 26 years. Her brother Rich was friends with my brother Frank. Somehow we met each other and got along great. We formed a band in the early part of that decade, called ourselves The Nift. Why the Nift? I don’t know. I named it, it’s merely a nonsense word.

Rita’s then sister in law Loren played guitar along with me, Rita played bass and Dave Bell, a friend of my brother Brian and myself played drums. We wrote maybe two songs, and rehearsed in Hoboken which was the best location. I was living in Lodi, Dave was in Wood Ridge, Loren was married to Rich and living in Newark and Rita lived in Chelsea.

We were all very much in love with the then vibrant music scene at McSwells We were big Bongos fans and we all liked the dB’s and fancied ourselves playing songs like theirs, though we weren’t as technically adept at our instruments. Dave was probably the best musician out of all of us.

Dave and I once cornered Peter Holsapple on the Path train and talked up The Nift to him. Unfortunately, he was in his heavy drinking phase and though offered words of encouragement to us, nothing ever came of it. We never played outside the rehearsal room.

Our repertoire was Anytime At All by the Beatles, Oh Boy by Buddy Holly, a song that I wrote the music for and Loren wrote the lyrics and a song that was more than likely about some guy that Rita went to high school, with, some guy named John Genzale.

You might know him by his later name, Johnny Thunders. I met Johnny Thunders through Rita when Johnny played a show at McSwells towards the end of his short life, it was fun to see Rita messing around with an old school chum who happened to be Johnny Thunders.

It was quite windy out and Rita, Lulu and I were going to walk halfway to the bus terminal but there’s a lot of construction going on in Rita’s present neighborhood and rather than fray Rita and Lulu’s nerves with the wind making loud noises on the construction sites, I insisted they go back home.

She really appreciated the resume copying and I was very glad I could help. I would have stayed longer but I needed to get some groceries since my cupboard was bare. Thursday night is still somewhat cruisy at the supermarket but as usual I was oblivious.

I saw the same guy who works there that Juan had a fling with a few years ago. I never have the nerve to say something like, ‘Juan says hello’. I think he’s a closeted fellow and might freak out. I just glance and think to myself, ‘I know what you like…’

On the work front, Vivek and his partner got on their plane to Pensacola, no complaints, at least so far. The right wing trading desk subtenants have taken to watching Fucks Business Channel, which had a speech the President was making.

The crowd loved Obama, even though it was a group that didn’t vote for him. One of the right wingnuts made a comment that it sounded like a high school pep rally.

He said it in a derogatory way to which I just had to mention that it wasn’t a pre-screened crowd like BushCo used to have at their rallies. It actually shut them up. I think they were used to having their outbursts go unchallenged.

Good to be home from work. Definitely a good thing. Things were ok today, until Vivek phoned at 3:30, telling me he wasn’t coming in and wanted me to book tickets for him and his partner to Pensacola, FL from New York.

I just couldn’t get it right it seemed. I wrote down the information and went online. Found a flight for 2 at a little over $100.00 per passenger. Went through with it only to find that the date wasn’t for tomorrow as I thought it would be the default but rather, February 25.

Very quick backpedaling involved. I corrected the dates and tried to book a flight from Pensacola to West Palm Beach. Sure there are flights, but one flight was from Pensacola to Atlanta then to West Palm Beach. There was another flight that substituted Dallas/Fort Worth for Atlanta.

I knew that was something they wouldn’t want, and told Vivek so. He told me to rent a car instead. Many phone calls back and forth between Vivek and myself before I finalized on the car rental. Still doing things like this get me stressed out.

I wouldn’t want Vivek to be stranded somewhere. Basically I don’t want to fuck up. I’ve booked flights before and it’s really no big deal but each time I get stressed about what if I had done something wrong. I’ll be this way probably for the next 18 hours.

Last night wasn’t stressed. I watched Olbermann again, then the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Walter Isaccson, Time magazine chief, was on the Daily Show talking about how basically the Internet shouldn’t be free, how newspapers are giving away their content and not making money.

I used to subscribe to the NY Times online but now it’s free. There are grumblings about how it might go back to a pay site. That would dissuade me from subscribing again. The Colbert Report was silly as usual, with TV on the Radio as the guests.

I sort of like them. Still not so sure. Their last record made a lot of best records of 2008 lists. I haven’t really heard it yet. Have you? Watched the new Scrubs last night too. It seems like they are setting up for the eventual departure of JD.

The first episode Zack Braff literally phoned it in. He was a disembodied voice on Elliot’s cellphone throughout. The second one was the better episode I thought. How JD and Turk were trying to maintain their friendship though they are both drifting apart and getting older. And the new interns have some funny characters, who will jump in once JD leaves the scene.

I really like Scrubs. I can’t explain why but I hardly miss an episode if it’s on. Tonight is Lost. You know Lost, the show about those people on a plane that some office manager booked tickets for that crashes on a mysterious island. That should distract me from the days stress.

Saw Bill tonight and that was very good. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. I wonder how we will work that out?

Tuesday again. Been a busy day at work, guests coming in for meetings, former co-tenants still on the lease until next year, coming by to see exactly what are they paying 30k a month for. The answer to that is they are paying that much for 5 empty offices that Vivek allows his partner to squat in.

I had to clean out that office yesterday, moving a whole bunch of crap from an office to a disused conference room. I didn’t mind since I am supposed to be getting a check from Vivek and his partner for doing some work for them on the side.

I submitted a time sheet of sorts totaling 14 hours. So that extra money could help, but their record keeping is askew. I would be impressed if they got it together to pay me. I would do the work anyhow and it was Vivek and his partner who insisted about submitting my hours.

Last night was President Obama’s first televised press conference, explaining and answering questions about his stimulus package. It certainly was refreshing to see someone intelligent behind the podium, speaking clearly and coherently without snickering.

Whatever snickering I heard of was on FuckSnooze, with Bill O’Shithead and Bernard ‘Jizz chin’ Goldberg mocking and impersonating Helen Thomas. I’m sure O’Shithead would have done a Jeff Gannon impersonation, but who knows the rates for male escorts in the Washington DC area? Besides Goldberg, I mean.

The President stated that he thinks Wall Street is looking for an easy way out.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way out.

After the President, I watched Heroes which was merely ok. Nothing really grabbed me. It sort of petered out. Maybe next week it will find it’s cojones. I spoke with Lovely Rita yesterday. She asked me to print out some resumes for her.

I did that with pleasure and when I see her on Thursday after work, I will give them to her. Didn’t see Bill tonight. I was going to but his boss came in late, burying Bill underneath a small mountain of work. There wouldn’t be enough time so we’ll meet up for a few minutes tomorrow.

Tonight is pretty quiet, nothing much planned. Can’t think of anything on TV, I’ll more than likely watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report after Olbermann. Haven’t watched Rachel Maddow lately. It’s all part of the weening off process, you see. Plus, how much bad news can I stand to hear when I’m home and trying to relax?

I received an email for David Byrne at Radio City in a few weeks. Seems like a good show, lot’s of Talking Heads songs as well as his work with Brian Eno. Sounds right up my alley. I checked out the prices, thinking about taking Bill to come along, then I saw the price for 2 tickets, $90.00.

Out of my price range, and those were the cheapest seats. Perhaps if Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth were playing with him it would be worth it, but without them, it will go on without me.

Latest casualty of the economic crisis is Casey Chasm. Laid off last week. But he is fertile though and in nine months he will prove it. Actually Mrs. Chasm will show the proof. I’m sure the Chasms will make excellent parents, being such good people and all.

It’s Monday and I don’t mind at all. An opportunity to get dressed up in a suit and tie is always a good thing and makes going to work a lot easier. Not much drudgery when you’re looking good. And not only do I think I was looking good, but Bill told me I was.

None of Tom Chin commenting that I wasn’t looking so hot like last week. This week I am back and in fashion. I do think my clothes say I make a lot of money, but I just want to look good. I think I only started wearing a suit and tie comfortably about 10 years ago, after my father died.

I think whatever ‘dandy’ spirit that inhabited him passed onto me. Yeah that’s it! Ghosts of dressing nice inhabit my body! My father always dressed nicely for work and now I do the same. He would more than likely be amused if he saw me walking around Manhattan, just a few blocks away from where his offices were on Lexington Avenue.

I don’t think the building is there anymore, I think it was where Lexington crossed 47th Street. I’m on Third and 49th and 50th Streets. I only went to the office with my father once and that was probably in 1976 or 1977.

It was a experience but mainly I didn’t see much, just dragged around by the hand through crowds getting off the train in Hoboken, taking the tubes (thats what the Path train used to be called, at least by my father), taking the subway to Grand Central then walking to his office. His co-worker, someone who my father couldn’t stand, Chuck Ferguson- wasn’t in.

This was over the Xmas holidays. My father sat in his office and I sat in reception mainly looking at the 4 walls. Not very exciting. I don’t recall going to lunch but I’m sure we did. My father probably resented having to take me to work, but it was something out of the ordinary for me.

After a long day of staring at the walls of my father’s drab office it was time to be dragged home, onto the subway, through the Tubes (no Fee Waybill) and on the Erie Lackawanna 5:42 from Hoboken to Teterboro. Back home to Lodi with my mother driving to the train stop after starting dinner.

I spent the day basically underwhelmed. The city was different then and my father did his best to protect me from the undesirables. I wanted to break away and be with the undesirables, to get away from my father. Of course it never happened.

Here I am over 30 years later, almost retracing his steps, only I walk a lot more where he used the subway. I know my mother would have loved to see me dressed up in a suit and tie. I saw Bill this afternoon and he liked how I looked that he took some pictures which are below.

Nothing special just me outside his office building puffing on a Padron. Our relationship is now about how many minutes we see each other each week. It sucks but it’s what has to be done at this moment. Absence does make the heart grow fonder and it also prevents each one from getting on each others nerves.

It’s a Sunday again and today was an exceptionally nice Sunday. After all the cold weather and freezing temperatures, the fact that it was near 60 degrees made it feel like Spring.

Of course it”s not spring and we’re going to go back to the cold weather sooner or later. Lot’s of people out and about today on Washington Street.

It was a good day to wander around Hoboken, enjoying a Padron. I did stop by and saw my friend Lois, who gave me an iron she found. The plan is to start ironing my own shirts to save some money. I’ll iron the dress shirts after I’ve worn them once to take care of a day’s wrinkles.

Lois was pretty sick, seemingly with the same virus I just had gotten over. I brought her some generic Nyquil and some vitamin C.

There were a lot of people out yesterday including what seemed to be a group of kids, all related singing Ramones songs on Washington Street. The boys were on bass, guitar and drums and the girl was singing.

They were raucous and shy if that’s possible. They had a good crowd and a zealous father who applauded the loudest after each song. There were quite a few dollars in the bag when I gave them one of mine.

Perhaps this is how it will be, families out on the street playing music for money. This group did have their hearts I the right place though their fingers were on the wrong frets. I walked away as they started deconstructing Blitzkrieg Bop.

Yesterday before I went out I watched Alien. The first movie, with John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto and of course, Sigourney Weaver. Still an intense movie, I remember seeing it at the now defunct Stanley Warner theater with my sister in law, Elaine.

I think my sister saw it before me saying it was a really gross picture which of course got my interest, hearing of a monster bursting through someone’s chest. I’ve seen it quite a few times since then.

A week or so ago there was some bulletin board about the movie and my post was rejected. I wrote about how horrible it was the way the Lambert character played by Veronica Cartwright gets killed.

The last shot of Lambert when she’s facing the monster is her lower legs. She’s paralyzed with terror and you see the Alien’s tail going between her calves and slowly heading upwards. The scene cuts to Ripley, Sigourney Weaver, hearing Lambert’s ghastly screams over the radio as she dies.

I wrote that the character was raped by the Alien, and that’s probably what prompted the monitor not to post my opinion. After watching it again yesterday and paying attention to that scene, I’m convinced that’s how Lambert met her too gruesome death. It’s an off camera scene which lends itself to the imagination.

Before I went out this afternoon I watched a documentary on Sweet Honey in the Rock on PBS. That was enjoyable. I’ve never seen Sweet Honey in the Rock but I did see Bernice Johnson Reagon’s daughter Toshi Reagon sing with her group Big Lovely with Elvis Costello when I saw a taping of the Letterman Show last century. I think I saw it with Harpy when he scored tickets for the taping.

Tonight is nothing special, back to work tomorrow. After being sick last week, I’m looking forward to it. Should be another intense week of rearranging the deck chairs.

I’m not complaining, at least not yet. Probably during the week I will. Seems to be a pattern.

Oh that Kenny G. He’s on TV right now playing his horn on some ice skating program. He’s the butt of a lot of jokes but I talked with him a while ago on the phone while working for Arista Records and found him to be quite a nice guy.

So I have no beef with him. I won’t run out and buy his records or anything like that but I really have nothing bad to say about him. I wish I knew him better so I could recommend Harpy working for him.

I just got home from Manhattan. Nice day to walk around the city. I headed into the office and cleaned some vases with bamboo shoots in them and roots and rocks covered in algae. I try to clean them once a month but I’ve been lax in that department.

I was also able to take care of a few things that occurred during my absence yesterday. It’s true, these people I work with and support can’t do anything for themselves. They are spoiled. I’m not complaining since I’m the one who’s spoiled them and it keeps me busy. The smallest thing I do makes me look good I think and I intend to keep this up until the lease runs out in March 2010.

Last night I watched a little bit of Factory Girl (The Edie Sedgwick story) which had a bit of the song, Shakin’ All Over. I loved the version and went to iTunes to find out who had done it. Of course it’s a classic and covered by dozens of artists. I found a version I really liked by Iggy Pop and downloaded it. But still- who did the classic 1960’s version?

I enjoyed a Padron as I walked back to the Path train. I wasn’t going to take the bus home since it took forever to get into the city on the bus. One lane going in through the Lincoln Tunnel, plus the bus had a slight collision with a truck. Nothing bad happened and we only stopped for a few minutes.

I was reading about Caroline Kennedy in the New Yorker and a woman next to me asked what I thought about the article I had just finished. We would up having a nice chat about the Kennedy’s and politics. I mentioned that it’s sometimes confusing and infuriating that being so close to New York, we get all the information about New York politics, like Caroline Kennedy thinking about becoming a Senator for the Empire State.

Ultimately it wouldn’t concern me one way or another, but I was drawn into it due to the Kennedy myths. My seat mate felt the same way. She’s an Irish Catholic and I’m a Irish Atheist, formerly catholic. It was a nice chat. She was chubby cheeked enough that she could have passed for one of my cousins. And we both still feel bad about John F. Kennedy Jr and his untimely demise.

I talked with my sister on the phone as I puffed on my Padron and walked down Fifth Avenue towards the Path train. She and her husband, Rex are enjoying the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss CD I got Rex for his birthday this past week, Raising Sand.

Annemarie is going to burn it for me since I was pretty much intrigued by the song that I had heard. I, in turn promised to burn a copy of Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It. I posted the 100 Yard Dash on my Facebook page page and Annemarie liked it.

It promises to be another quiet night tonight. No plans really. Got the new Mojo and Uncut magazines which I will likely peruse while perhaps watching Renee Fleming on the Elvis Costello show, Spectacle. That’s it on this end. Hope all is well with you and yours, as it is with me and mine.

Well it’s Friday and I’m not at 100%, still have this cold which seems to be subsiding at 3:18PM. I listened to Bill’s advice and stayed home. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be going into work and set things up to take care of themselves today in the office.

So I’m legitimately out today yet still I feel some guilt about not going in. True, I probably wouldn’t be of much use today, things on Fridays have been generally running at half speed lately, but I feel like I should have made an appearance.

And on the news today was all bad news, unemployment at it’s highest in 37 years. That didn’t help my mindset at all. Harpy and I talked last week about how odd it is that I’m the only one working out of several people we know.

It’s not easy working knowing the rug could be pulled out from under you at any time. The sword of Damocles hangs overhead while precariously perched on a shaky rug. It seems more intense not being in the office than it is when I am in the office.

Had a strange dream last night. I was on a motor boat in the Hudson River with Paul McCartney and one of his grand kids. I was steering it towards where the Air Bus was docked in the World Financial Center/Battery Park area before being moved on shore in NJ.

Lot’s of watercraft and despite the feeling of near collisions I was able to get the motor boat back to Jersey City where Macca and I walked around looking for his grand kid. That’s it, that’s all that happened and it was certainly a sign of a fever dream.

I can’t say that I’ve dreamed of Paul or any other Beatles lately though I used to when I was growing up in Lodi. I used to dream that John, Paul, George and Ringo lived in a neighbor’s house, the Janowsky’s much like the Beatles lived in one big flat in Help.

I would go over to see if they were around but almost always they were away. I would see them going in or out of the house in various dreams. Here it is quite a few years later and I’m dreaming of Paul in Jersey City. I guess I still am a strange kid.

It’s cold outside and I’ve been cooped up all day in the apartment. No need to go out though stretching my legs seems like a good enough excuse. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day and I am thinking about heading into the office to take care of some dirty stuff.

That means cleaning out the bamboo stalks from the algae covered rocks in a few vases in the office. It’s a messy job and I’m thinking that tomorrow would be perfect since no one will be in and I can do it at my own pace. It’s basically a pain in the ass.

Well I just got back from a short walk to the store. It’s certainly cold out, but I enjoyed just being outside. Broke up the day somewhat. Nothing else planned for today or rather, tonight. More sitting around the apartment seems likely. But tomorrow, tomorrow I will go out. This much I know.

Well it was back to work for me and I made it until 3:00PM. I had an errand that was close to the Path train which allowed me to leave early. I wasn’t feeling 100% and Tom Chin mentioned quite a few times that I don’t look so well and I sounded congested.

I thought I looked ok but it’s true I was still congested. It seems like the cold or bug or whatever has moved from my sinuses to my chest. Some coughing, in a Flemish style.

I spoke with my brother Frank and texted with my brother Brian as well as emails with my sister Annemarie. I seem to be the conduit for all three. Brian asked me to forward an email to Bill which I did, and later speaking with Frank about an email I offered to write it for him, saying ‘Duh’ a lot as well as ‘I forgot what I was trying to say’. He laughed at that which was good.

Annemarie, 3000 miles away was expressing concern for me and my ailment, suggesting various things to make me feel better, which I did but still never got the zinc lozenges. Think it would be best for all concerned, meaning co-workers, that I stay home tomorrow.

Fridays are generally slow and quiet and I usually leave early anyhow and who knows how many people I’ve infected just by going to work. That’s probably how I got whatever it is that I’ve got. I just made some pasta which took care of some hunger.

On the way home I ran into William Charas my former roommate from my Weehawken years. It was good to see him but I didn’t stick around much since he was heading into the Hoboken Farmboy and I was heading home and it was 25 degrees out with a whipping wind.

Going to be 7 years since I moved from Weehawken and 6 years since he was forced out of a lovely living situation at 127 Jane Street. We definitely get along better now that we don’t live together. We had gone through a few ups and downs, the loss of our fathers but through it all we occasionally did get on each others nerves.

The last part of our living together was silently wishing the other one would move out. Since both of us were friends with Julio, Julio got to hear both sides of the problem, eventually telling me of the apartment on the top floor of his building.

It turned out to be the right choice since within a year William, his brother Chaz and his wife Kathe in 129 Jane Street were all forced to move due to the hideous landlords. The landlords were such a pain in the ass to deal with that in order for Bill and myself to have a fun time, we rented a hotel room in Manhattan for the weekend. Things were cheaper then and the hotel had a really good deal.

But it was great seeing William, we parted ways telling each other, I love you. I came home feeling good and lucky to know that I had so many good friends that love me, and I of course love them right back.

Still a bit under the weather but I persevere. Didn’t sleep well last night, so since I’ve been home I haven’t napped. I’m tired enough to nap but I resist the arms of Hypnos. I figure if I don’t nap I should sleep better tonight.

Already I am planning on phoning in sick tomorrow since I need to get better and just get some rest, plus it’s been snowing all day and though it hasn’t been sticking, it will freeze up tonight and it’s supposed to continue to snow all night. So staying home and resting is my plan for tomorrow.

Last night was just rest and I felt better but then again I was next to an open window. It was warm enough to do that. I can breathe outdoors in fresh air with no problem, inside it’s congestion city. I watched Scrubs and Olbermann, forsaking Rachel Maddow for Heroes.

I enjoyed Heroes, but it could have been shorter. I tried watching Chuck in 3D, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as watching Keith Olbermann in 3D, and by enjoyable, I mean terrifying. Heroes was good though. Very much like a comic book, now that this Legion of Super Heroes is hiding. It would have made a good two hour episode but no, they had to bring back Medium which a show I cannot get into.

I watched RuPaul’s Drag Race on Logo. It’s a show about who can be the best drag queen. I enjoy RuPaul, always did ever since she gave me passes to a party back in the 1980’s saying that she was my big black mama and she wanted to see me there. I didn’t make it though, risking the wrath of my big black mama.

I don’t watch many reality shows at all. Actually I don’t watch any, but this was worth a look and it was fun and enjoyable. Drag queens are generally tough people. They have to be. You never know who’s going to come at you so they have to have their guard up at all times as well as looking good.

They were also on the front lines at Stonewall in 1969. Drag is not my scene but it was a fun show and if I remember I will check it out again.

While RuPaul’s show was on, I was sitting in front of my computer, an elbow on the table when all of a sudden, the table vibrated for a few seconds. I obviously thought it was odd but since it only lasted a few seconds it was quickly forgotten and ignored.

The 11:00 news came on and it was announced there was an earthquake with the epicenter in Morristown. That’s what I felt. I have to say it was thrilling to know. Luckily no one was hurt and it certainly wasn’t on a scale like a California earthquake. I didn’t go through anything like my sister has been through in the past so I am lucky to say it was a novelty.

I neglected to write that over the weekend I watched 3 DVD’s. ‘Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride’ a short documentary on Hunter S. Thompson. It was so so. Not impressed but then again I never read any Hunter Thompson. His myth overpowered his writing and he always felt like he belonged to my brother Frank’s generation rather than mine.

‘Human Traffic’ was about a group of British youth off work for the weekend and partying up a storm. That was funnier than I expected and oddly true to life.

And lastly, ‘Man on a Wire’ a documentary about Philippe Petit, who crossed from World Trade Center Tower A to Tower B in 1974. I watched that with sweaty palms of course, me with my fear of heights. I remember hearing about it while having breakfast before school sitting across the dining room table from my mother.

That was fascinating and Philippe Petit still lives. He was on The Colbert Report a few days ago. Now I sit drinking juice and constantly blowing my nose with a temperature of 98.2.

Well it’s a Monday and I have some sort of bug. There’s been some bug going around lately and I thought it was merely a strain of the bug that I had in October. Hopefully this is nothing new, just a clogged head, feels like allergies actually. Didn’t sleep well last night. Tossing and turning and feeling dried up.

Woke up feeling like crap and went to work feeling like crap.

Last night wasn’t so crappy. I missed most of the Super Bowl. Actually missed all of the Super Bowl, instead watching a CBS Reports about Barack and Michelle Obama and then tuning in time to watch Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at halftime.

He was good of course. The crotch into the camera shot was priceless and very much a surprise. The world got to see something that Patti Scialfa sees every night.

Then I watched Big Love which was very good as usual. Flight of the Conchords was pretty funny too. Everyone has hurt feelings which is what Brett and Jemaine sang in Conchords and could also be applied to Big Love. Caught the Office which was funny and odd and stretched a bit thin for an hour long episode.

I went to bed tired but was unable to sleep for a while. Lot’s of uncomfortable feeling. I swear I was finally able to rest when the alarm went off. Isn’t that always the case. Literally dragged my ass to the bus stop. I can definitely breathe better outside than inside which is a good thing to know and that makes me think it’s allergies.

Got to the office, feeling crappy. It was a nice morning though. In the 40 degree temperature range which made it spring like. Enough so that I didn’t wear a hat. Inside my office, the usual sub tenant knuckleheads were in already.

I just settled into my cube after starting up the machines and making coffee when Tom Chin showed up with a ‘Hey big guy’. He always calls me big guy. I should call him little man. He called me into his office, saying something that I couldn’t pay much attention to.

Once again he asked me a question and as I tried to answer it he started talking over me which made me stop speaking and listen to him since he doesn’t really want to hear what I had to say.

Last week Vivek had me give me the head of the sub tenants some papers for him to sign. The head left them on his desk and he was out for a few days. Since they were still unsigned and in the same place where I left them, the papers were revised so I went in there and replaced the original with the revision.

That ruffled some feathers and as Vivek and the head were talking Vivek was saying something and the head just kept saying ‘yeah. Alright. OK’ and you could tell he wasn’t listening to Vivek, in the same way Tom Chin doesn’t listen to me.

Oh rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic can be such a chore.

Vivek and his partner had a few guests in from India for a meeting. It’s going on today as well as tomorrow. I had to bring coffee into the conference room when I was accosted by 5 Indian men who bathed in strong cologne, driving my sinuses crazy.

I got through most of the day and left early on the pretext that I will rest up for another big day tomorrow. Already I’ve taken a 90 minute nap and I’m sitting next to an open window so I could breathe.